Noctuidae: Caradrina noctivaga Noctuidae
Caradrina noctivaga

I have developed this website as part of my long-standing interest in biodiversity and ecology with a particular focus on European butterflies and moths.  My photographs date mainly from 2010 onwards and for the moment focus principally on a small number of localities in Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK (including my own garden in London).  Over time I hope to include a wider range of species from other parts of Europe and also extend the photo galleries to beetles, dragonflies, and other insects.


The website has been designed in collaboration with Corinna Reetz, who is not only a brilliant graphic designer but also an excellent coleopterist (beetle expert), and you will find many examples of her photographs in the beetle galleries.  Corinna and I are certainly interested in any suggestions about how the site structure and organization might be further improved.  We are also gradually adding vernacular names in different languages to provide further cultural and historical interest to the website.


I hope that the site will become a useful resource for other enthusiasts and also enable some species to be depicted for the first time in their natural settings.  The coverage is mainly restricted to commoner species though there are already several Iberian endemics on the site along with some rarities from the woodlands of central Europe and even from inner London.  Whenever I travel I am always on the look out for something interesting, whether it is in the middle of a city or on a remote mountain path: you just never know!


Matthew Gandy

December 2017